Pressure around Keir Starmer begins to increase considerably
Keir Starmer is currently fighting to save his position as Prime Minister, following the resignations of key advisers and growing calls from senior Labor leaders for the British Prime Minister to resign, following the bitter fallout from the release of Jeffrey Epstein’s files.
Tim Allan, Starmer’s communications director, declared this Monday that he was leaving the government. It came less than a day after Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s chief of staff and closest adviser, resigned over his role in appointing Peter Mandelson – a friend of Jeffrey Epstein – as UK ambassador to the United States last year.
Allan’s resignation adds to the sense that the scandal surrounding Mandelson’s appointment cannot be contained and could spell the end of Starmer’s tenure, just 19 months after the Labor Party came to power in a landslide election that gave it its biggest majority in Parliament this century.
That feeling became stronger after Anas Sarwar, the leader of the Scottish Labor Party, broke ranks on Monday afternoon and called for Starmer’s resignation, becoming the first senior figure from that wing to do so in public.
“The distraction must end and the leadership at Downing Street must change,” Sarwar said, arguing that the decision to ask Starmer to leave caused him “personal hurt and pain” but justifying that a change of direction was needed ahead of local elections in May, which have long been expected to serve as a referendum on Starmer’s leadership.
British public opinion became disillusioned with Starmer almost as soon as it elected him in 2024. Although the Labor Party promised a “decade of national renewal” – which would require it to win two elections – a series of political mistakes and changes at the top of government took Starmer’s approval ratings to record levels. Labour’s problems have benefited the populist Reform UK party, which has led the polls for more than a year.
Starmer is facing his biggest crisis yet over his decision to appoint Mandelson – a veteran Labor politician – as ambassador to the US, despite his well-known friendship with Epstein, which continued after the disgraced financier’s 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. Mandelson’s revelations dominated the British media for days, turning into one of the country’s biggest political scandals this century.
Starmer fired Mandelson in September after a series of emails revealed uncomfortable details about his connections to Epstein. Further details about Mandelson’s connection to Epstein emerged when the US Department of Justice last month released millions of documents relating to the disgraced financier. Some of these documents appeared to show that Mandelson, when he was UK Business Secretary in 2009, passed market-sensitive information to Epstein.
British police have launched a criminal investigation into misconduct in public office and searched two properties linked to Mandelson last week. CNN was unable to reach Mandelson for comment.
Meanwhile, opposition parties – and even Labor Party figures – have called on Starmer to release documents relating to his government’s decision to appoint Mandelson ambassador to the US.
In a statement on Sunday, McSweeney – a protégé of Mandelson – took “full responsibility” for having advised Starmer to make the appointment.
“The decision to nominate Peter Mandelson was wrong. He damaged our party, our country and confidence in politics itself,” said McSweeney, adding that he continues to “fully” support the prime minister.
Starmer said last week that Mandelson had lied about the extent of his friendship with Epstein and that the revelations in the latest release of DOJ documents were “beyond infuriating.”
In a speech addressed to his team this Monday morning, Starmer once again criticized Mandelson, saying that his “disgraceful behavior” is “totally incompatible with public service”, according to a note from Downing Street.
But if Starmer had hoped to reassert his grip on power at the start of a new week, that grip was once again shaken by the dismissal of Allan, another close ally, who joined as communications director around five months ago.
“I have decided to resign to allow the creation of a new team for No. 10. I wish the Prime Minister and his team every success,” Allan said in a brief statement.
Starmer now faces an uphill battle to convince his party that he remains the right person to lead the country. In a coordinated show of support, on Monday afternoon, members of Starmer’s cabinet went to the X to plead the prime minister’s case.
David Lammy, the deputy prime minister, said Starmer had won a term “of five years to deliver on the Labor Party manifesto… We must let nothing distract us from our mission to change Britain and we support the prime minister in doing so”. Yvette Cooper, the foreign minister, stressed that Starmer’s leadership was needed “not just at home, but on the global stage”.
Later this Monday afternoon, the prime minister is expected to speak to members of parliament’s Labor bench – of which there are almost 400 – in an attempt to shore up his dwindling support.
Sarwar’s decision to call for Starmer’s resignation may encourage Labor lawmakers to do the same. The leader of the Scottish Labor Party said he spoke to Starmer before calling for his resignation, “and I think it’s safe to say that he and I disagreed”.
“There were too many mistakes,” Sarwar said. “They promised they would be different, but too much has already happened. Have there been good things? Of course, there have been many, but no one knows them and no one can hear them because they are being hushed up. That’s why this can’t continue.”
CNN’s James Frater contributed reporting
